If things get really serious this Monday, it could be painful for John Degenkolb. This is nothing new for a cyclist. The ability to suffer is a basic prerequisite. The distance to the finish line is getting smaller, the lactate shoots into the muscles, the legs hurt – and in the case of Degenkolb, it could also pull in the shoulder on Monday.

David Lindenfeld

Sports Editor

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He is still feeling the consequences of his accident when he crashed in a promising position on a cobblestone passage in northern France three weeks ago in what was perhaps the most difficult one-day race Paris-Roubaix. "It doesn't hinder me in normal cycling and in everyday life," says the 34-year-old from Team DSM: "Only when you have to pull and tear the handlebars enormously in the sprint, the pain is not completely gone."

"The challenge is enormous"

Pull and tear? It has become at least a little more likely that at the end of the 200 kilometres of the Eschborn-Frankfurt cycling classic, this will no longer take place in the usual form of recent years in Frankfurt's city centre, when the race always ended with a bunch sprint.

The most exciting of all questions before 1 May: How does the new profile with 3000 metres of altitude difference and a second Feldberg crossing from the heavier southwestern side affect the race? "The challenge is enormous," says Degenkolb: "A lot depends on how the race is organised by the other teams."

Degenkolb, who will take the hunt through his home town of Oberursel, won the classic in 2011. Since then, he has finished second three times and third once. The new track does not benefit his type of driver. "If Rambazamba is really made at the second Feldberg crossing, it will be difficult to keep up." This also applies to riders such as Alexander Kristoff, four-time winner, or Jasper Philipsen, who won the race in 2021 and finished second at Paris-Roubaix this year.

In any case, attacks on the Feldberg are to be expected - perhaps also from other regional greats such as Jason Osborne or Jonas Rutsch, for whom the route profile seems to be tailored. "If an excellent group of climbers is formed and they work well together, it will be difficult to get them back," says Degenkolb with a view to the last flat section, which has now become shorter: "But it's not impossible."

"Not everyone has understood yet"

A lot of subjunctive before the only race in Germany that has the first-class WorldTour status. "That's exactly what we want," says Fabian Wegmann, the sporting director. More action, more imponderables. He is "very satisfied" with the squad that the teams are sending. The ten World Tour and nine Pro teams have until 24 hours before the start of the race to register their team. A peloton is already emerging, which is colorfully mixed. The German team Bora-hansgrohe sends last year's winner Sam Bennett, a classic sprinter.

And, as it stands, also Emanuel Buchmann, who recently had to cancel his start at the Tour de Romandie due to illness. He is one of the best climbers, about 15 kilograms lighter than Bennett. There are teams that don't have sprinters with them and will "make it really difficult" for the others. And again, those who bet on the guys with the thick thighs. "I have the feeling that not everyone has understood it yet and underestimates what is in store for them," says Wegmann.

Hardly anyone can judge better what awaits the drivers than John Degenkolb. During his training sessions, he is often out and about in the Taunus. He knows the Feldberg from numerous ascents. Degenkolb is quite mountaineering and currently in strong shape. At Paris-Roubaix, the 34-year-old was reminiscent of an earlier version of himself, the way he played in the leading group.

The fact that the race ended in seventh place after his crash is something he has ticked off. "No one can know what would have been possible," says Degenkolb: "To be able to drive such a mega-final was an enormous motivational boost that brought me back to the front and helped me to put the disappointment away." Degenkolb spent a week with his family in Mallorca to give his body a break and clear his head. After five days, he got back on his bike.

"I was totally suffering"

He is "absolutely satisfied" with the form curve of the spring. Degenkolb attributes the fact that he is in such a good mood to a changed approach. Instead of preparing for the classic season with altitude training camps and fewer races like in 2021, his team let him ride two Grand Tours in 2022 "to recharge his batteries". At the Tour de France in July and the Vuelta a España in August and September, he was "totally suffering," says Degenkolb: "But for the classics, it definitely brought me forward."

When you think of Degenkolb, the images of his successes at the Paris-Roubaix and Milan-Sanremo monuments in 2015 or his stage victories in the three major national tours that made him a great one come to mind. The fact that he also won Eschborn-Frankfurt in 2011 was an "eternity" ago by cycling standards, says Degenkolb, "felt like another century". Nothing has changed in the direction since then: "When you're at the start as a local hero, you want to win."

The weather forecast is now better than at the beginning of the week. Hardly any risk of precipitation. "That would be good for the event and the spectators," says Degenkolb, who would have no objection to a shower. Someone like him, whose favourite race takes him through the "hell of the north" over 54 kilometres, some of the most brutal cobblestones, where the match is thrown in the face of the riders in bad weather conditions, cannot be stopped by a pull in the shoulder when it comes to the sprint. And certainly not from rain.